Régis Avanthay, Senior Advisor of Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Development Centre (DEV) recently visited the WINGS office in Brazil. He shared with us information about the launch of Global Network of Foundations.

The OECD Development Centre has traditionally played the role of bridging OECD countries and emerging economies with several types of public- and private-sector partners: transnational organisations, civil society, universities and think tanks. Foundations were at a margin and since DEV has expertise in managing networks, the decision to create a Global Network of Foundations was for a simple reason: get the voice of foundations on global and regional issues.

The first meeting of the Global Network of Foundations took place last June in Paris, with at least one foundation from each continent, totaling 14 founding members and associates. Associates are not foundations but organisations that provide services to the network and support its development (e.g. WINGS, The Foundation Center).

The overall goal for OECD is to have foundations influence policy, to improve interactions with other stakeholders, and to develop a more strategic approach for strengthening their impact and effectiveness. Foundations would also identify areas or issues for collaborating.